In Vino Veritas
by Magister Equitum
Summary: Perhaps the setting sun would give her the answer she wanted.


Disclaimer: Nope. I'm just a poor college student. You can try but you won't get much.

Author's Notes: This was written for the LJ Numb3rs WriteOff Challenge. My prompt was 'Sunset' and I was on Team Schmoop.

_Enjoy._

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The warmth of the evening wrapped around her and she sighed once before leaning back. The bench on her front porch was comfortable enough and the wooden grain pressed into her skin. Her feet were tucked up to the side. Toes painted a deep purple color wiggled in relief from the day's confinement in heels.

Robin Brooks let out another deep and content sigh. Opening her eyes to the lawn in front of her, she looked out into the setting sun. Her house happened to have a beautiful view facing from the front, unusual for most suburbs of Los Angeles that were closer to the city limits. The small green lawn blended into pavement and then faded to blue sky with a skyscraper horizon.

The front porch she was currently curled up on was the perfect place to watch the setting sun. Reds and purples and pinks and oranges rippled across the clouds and reflected on the glass panes of the City of Angels' buildings. She loved the changing colors and how they blended into one another.

A wine glass, still relatively full, lay on the ground. Robin leaned down with one arm and grasped the stem, lifting it to her lips and sipping the deep red liquid. Hints of berries with an undercurrent of plum burst on her tongue and she reveled in the taste; she was partial to merlot.

Unwinding was a must after a week like this. Watching the sun disappear from her porch, sitting on her bench, wine glass handy was exactly how Robin liked to do it. She had turned this into a ritual of hers. It allowed her mind to gradually let go of all thoughts related to the legal system, witnesses and documents. And she had really needed to unwind after this week. All week long Robin had been wrapping up a high profile case. The case had involved a repeat offender who had finally escalated up to murder with his latest doings.

Two people were dead for no reason other than simple misfortune and sheer stupidity on the defendant's part. From the onset it had looked to be a simple, straightforward case. However, when it came to light that a mistake had been made in police procedure, accidental and unintentional, a particular vital piece of evidence had been dismissed by the judge. Enter where a simple case had turned into a major headache.

But she was finally done and was so thankful that it was really all over. Well, over except for the jury's decision, but unless they had questions, it was all up to them now.

Perhaps, she thought, that meant that maybe this weekend could be spent on herself. Some light reading – there was that book she had been meaning to finish – and a little self-indulgent pampering.

And maybe some well spent time with her boyfriend.

That is if he wasn't tied down tonight or this weekend. Friday it may be, but the cutting short of a Friday afternoon in favor of a jump start to the weekend wasn't very common to a federal agent. She hoped that he could get away.

Since Robin had returned to Los Angeles and realized that she had never gotten over Don Eppes, she had finally conceded that a second chance was exactly what she wanted. For a month now, things had been better. She wasn't scared anymore, the whole 'empty-drawer-hairclip-running away' phase gone for good.

A slow smile came over her lips around the wine glass as thoughts of her dark haired Fed took precedence over anything else going through her mind. She was happy, so very happy. He made her happy. She loved him...

Robin's eyes popped open and her smile faltered at that last thought.

'_Where had that come from?' _She wondered.

Unwilling to simply let it slip by, she analyzed her mind's declaration of love. Did she love Don? That was a compounded question with many aspects to it. There wasn't a simple answer to that.

The practical part of her mind, the lawyer in her, still wanted to allow those doubts and fears to creep in. There was nothing to say that they would fall apart but there was also nothing to say that they would last. She wanted to believe that everything would be fine; and the differences in commitment from both of them suggested that their relationship was stronger than last time around.

'_Although_,' Robin thought suddenly, '_love shouldn't be a complicated thing._'

Love wasn't supposed to be complicated when it boiled down to it. Either you did or you didn't.

So, did she love Don?

Robin raised the wine glass, noticing that the deep red liquid now filled less than half. Looking out from her positing, the pinks and purples now giving way to twilight and its dusky blue, she searched for her answer. Perhaps the setting sun could tell her what she wanted to know.

In all honesty it was more of an internal pondering, the sunset merely giving her something to idly focus on.

The sudden vibration against her thigh broke her trance. Fingers reached into her pocket, fishing out the cell phone. The name across her screen, lit up by a blue background, suddenly had her smiling again.

Then, Robin had her answer.

Love was a feeling. You couldn't help who you loved. Either you did or you didn't. The feeling was either there or it wasn't. It didn't matter how long or anything else that experts tried to say. 

Besides, Robin was the best judge of person when it came to herself. Or at least she should be by her age.

'_Yes_,' she decided, '_she did love Don.'_

And she was perfectly okay with that and somehow she knew that he was perfectly okay with that too.

The last rays of the sun sank behind the skyscrapers in the distance and her unwinding sunset was gone for the night. Answering the phone, Robin smiled as she coyly said, "Hello, Agent Eppes."

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The End.

Comments are always appreciated.


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